Wrath of Kahn? Anyone?
OK, so the Sox got on track last night in Kansas City with some good pitching and some good hitting. Simple right? The defense was not so good, and even though Joe Morgan thinks infield defense is the "most important part of the game" the Sox still managed to win 7-1, despite 2 to 3 errors from Mike Lowell. How did we win? Josh Beckett and the bullpen only allowed 1 run, and the offense kept piling on, building the score to 7 runs.
By in large, Beckett looked pretty good. He only went 5 innings, due to his pitch count being at 94 (plus the Sox were up 4-1 when he left). Had the game been a bit later in the season, Francona probably would have sent him out to at least start the 6th. He did have some trouble throwing strikes. He threw 46 strikes and 48 balls, hardly a good ratio. He walked 4 batters. But he didn't let the balls or the walks get him into major trouble. He only allowed 2 hits and 1 run. He struck out 5.
The offense as a whole went 8 for 32 at the plate, which was exactly the same as they did in our 7-1 loss on Monday. Couple of differences: we were walked 8 times last night, we had two doubles and a homer, we got hits IN A ROW.
JD Drew was the only Sox hitter to have multiple hits.
The bullpen allowed 1 hit in 4 innings of work. No walks, 3 strikeouts.
Josh Beckett was the Man of the Game, mostly because no hitter really stood out. Beckett threw A LOT of balls, but he was able to work around his walks, and keep the Royals offense down. He allowed no home runs, which was nice.
JD Drew gets an Honorable Mention for his 2 for 5 performance. Ross Gload of the Royals also gets an Honorable Mention for his 2 for 3 night, with a double, and a walk.
Matsuzaka against Greinke in this afternoon's rubber match.
And do you ever notice that the Yankees cancel games really, really early whenever they're having pitching difficulties? It just seems like if there's a rainstorm anywhere near the Tri-State area, and the Yankees rotation is full of problems, the Yankees call games like 2 hours in advance. Weird how that happens.
